World Briefing | Europe: Estonia: Excavation Near Soviet Monument

By STEVEN LEE MYERS

Published: April 27, 2007

Estonia began excavating the earth surrounding a Soviet-era war memorial in the capital, Tallinn, a step toward relocating it to a military cemetery. The monument, the Bronze Soldier, commemorates the victory over Nazi Germany but is viewed by many Estonians as a symbol of the Soviet occupation that followed. Proposals to remove the monument have brought strong reactions from ethnic Russians in Estonia and from the Russian government. STEVEN LEE MYERS